diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
index 636d174b155..32e49852af5 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
@@ -639,6 +639,8 @@ let
 
       SYSVIPC            = yes;  # System-V IPC
 
+      AIO                = yes;  # POSIX asynchronous I/O
+
       UNIX               = yes;  # Unix domain sockets.
 
       MD                 = yes;     # Device mapper (RAID, LVM, etc.)